Ouch, this hurts: "The evening news, a tradition born at a time when evening newspapers were important, has one of television's oldest audiences."
I don't know that I'd be as optimistic as this analyst, who thinks the obituary for the network evening news is premature, though the combined audience is down to 25 million viewers from 34 million a decade ago. But I think Jeff Jarvis' vision of a "post-media age" that takes us back to tribal story telling is a stretch, though fascinating.
It's worth remembering that Peter Jennings was once derided as "anchorboy," just another pretty news reader, and ended up as a respected journalist who shaped the newscast that he hosted. I'm not that crazy about TV news, but there's no denying its continuing inlfluence. If we're going to talk about story telling, let's not forget that not all story tellers are created equal. I'm sure the Internet will generate some great ones, but right now millions of bloggers who get a few hits each do not equal a handful of people who beam into our living rooms daily, even in the fragmented cable age.
